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Elliott to bugger off to Penrith next year.

ABC Online are reporting that, after what seems like an eternity of coaching the Raiders to mediocrity, Matt Ellis Elliott is going to Pentrith next year because his family wanted to live in Sydney and Penrith is as close as he can get.

Any tears in the Raiders Community? And will the next guy do any better?

What’s Your opinion?

I find it interesting that the Raiders are going to keep him for this year. His intentions are clear, he doesn’t want to be here for whatever reason.

Therefore I say get rid of him now and instal a caretaker coach. Either way, its doubtful that the Raiders are going to set the world on fire and it could be a good way to blood a new coach into the ranks of first grade.

And in Elliot’s defence, he really didn’t have the cattle to work with and one must also remember that they were running first for six or seven weeks last season until half the team got injured.

Good luck to him, its a professional sport so he needs to go where the money is and it probably isn’t here at present.

The ABC put forward Dave Furner, Kev Walters, and Smelma Finger. Can I jsut remind the Raiders management was an absolute dud Mal was at coach first time around, and there aint no Laurie Daley in the team to make him look decent this time…

personally, i think it’s time for him to go. the raiders kind of surprised everyone when we made 4th in 2003 with their simple game plan but i’m not quite sure why they stuck to it the following two years when the other teams already knew what we were doing. lets bring in someone who wants the team to play some exciting football.

can anyone add to the rumours that ricky is sick of phil gould interfering at the roosters and he wants to come back to the raiders?

Good point swaggie – that is no reason to leave Canberra – especially for Penrith. Anyone who has been there would surely have to agree. A Penrith education would be unlikely to compare to a Canberra education.

If the kids lived in the city and Matty was travelling in and out from Penrith on a daily basis he will miss Canberra all the more.

Sorry to see him go, but I’m a bit dissapointed he doesn’t come out and say that he wants to win a premiership and he has far more chance of doing that at the Panthers.

Elliott has laid some foundations which any incoming coach is going to reap. I don’t get this ‘living in Sydney’ bit though – the place is a shithole apart from the harbour. He’s quoted in the CT as saying his kids want a Sydney education – can anyone really say Canberra can’t offer as good an education as Sydney???

In defence of Matt Elliot, he really has had no cattle to work with for the last few years.

He was always a voice of reason, wore responsibility for his sides performance and seemed a nice bloke a well.

I wish him well – and hope that Brian Smith decides Canberra would work for him…

Realistically though, Kevin Walters would be the next best bet – he knows the city, he’s been learning from the best, he has international experience and could tap into the Queensland player market and get the young up and comers that the Raiders have been missing.

The Raiders may go alright this year – Wiilam Zillman could be a superstar, and assuming that the Club is not decimated by injuries again, sneaking into the 8 is not out of the question.